[ad_1]
An audit of Council for Transparency (CPLT) repeatedly evidenced breaches by health organizations, such as unanswered requests for information or delivery of records after the deadline. In the case of Undersecretary of Assistance Networks 2019 requirements were identified, prior to the pandemic, without any type of management.
The CPLT decided to instruct summary investigations to the Undersecretaries of Public Health and Assistance Networks, when noting requests for access to information without response and others after the deadline according to what is established by the Transparence law.
After auditing 25 health sector organizations in times of pandemic -including the two undersecretaries, seremías, health services and hospitals- in a 76% of cases evaluated (more than 260 requests for access to information), there were violations of the right to access information.
About the process, the President of the Council, Gloria de la Fuente, highlighted the relevance of access to information from public entities in crisis contexts.
“In the context of a health emergency such as the one caused by the coronavirus, having access to timely information can save lives,” he warned.
CPLT stressed the importance of having information
He also stressed that having records from official sources “collaborates with the decision-making process and allows society to exercise control over what is done and the decisions that are made.”
The foregoing, he said, “is central, since it helps to rebuild or repair trust and gives legitimacy to the actions undertaken by the authorities, an essential question if what is sought is that people abide by the measures taken to care for each and everyone, even more so if an increase in infections is expected ”.
The political scientist explained that the Board of Directors established at the beginning of the health emergency that the right to access public information was maintained in the context of the constitutional state of exception.
In that sense, president of the CPLT He explained that “in a pandemic context it was important to know what was happening in terms of access to information not only to control resources, but also to know if the entities were responding to information requirements, which in crisis contexts transform information in a key input ”.
De la Fuente commented that after a series of processes focused on purchasing –such as rapid tests-, healthcare residences, among others, “the Council’s team of supervisors identified that some services consistently did not respond to requests for information or they did it extemporaneously, which raised the alerts to develop a process focused on this type of non-compliance ”.
In some cases, such as the Los Lagos Health Seremi, It was not possible to access the administrative files, due to omission from the agencies or lack of response to the requirements of the CPLT’s Supervision Directorate.
Also notable for high levels of non-compliance and partial delivery of files was the Concepción Health Service and the Claudio Vicuña de San Antonio Hospital.
Heavy penalties
The head of the Council emphasized that “it is understandable that the functions to be performed by officials of health entities have been affected by the pandemic.”
However, he pointed to the need to give continuity to pro-transparency actions in a context of crisis of institutional confidence.
“It can be understood that there are more difficulties in responding, but nothing justifies non-compliance with the law, not even the constitutional state of exception. In fact, it is part of the warnings that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights made in the context of the pandemic and that the Council widely recognized, ”he declared.
Regarding the situation of the Undersecretary of Public Health, The CPLT identified information requirements that had not been recorded in any way since 2019. Another finding was that 9 out of 10 of the unanswered requests that were followed up were answered during the audit process.
Regarding the sanctions that could derive from these summary investigations -which have a period to be resolved of 60 days-, fines would be contemplated ranging between 20% and 50% of the remuneration of the head of service, that is, of the undersecretaries.
In the case of Assistance Networks this would not apply after the resignation of Arturo Zúñiga.
In the case of the rest of the services, a period of 90 days was granted from when they were notified of the results of the process to regularize the situation, prior to starting a new examination.
Voluntary registrations
The process, developed between July and October, was based on the random selection of requests for access to information from the records of the State Transparency Portal, an electronic platform whose membership is voluntary for public entities, under the administration of the Council. for Transparency.
Given the identification of significant volumes of requests for access to information with expired deadlines and without a response registered in the State Transparency Portal in health entities, about 60% of the total in process, the audit was specifically directed to the agencies of the health sector that had proportionally more cases in this situation.
[ad_2]
